Instead of complaining about the president’s program, State Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, said Pritzker needs to address the state’s problems. “Two weeks ago, last week, this week, maybe next week,” he said of the failed meetings.

White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx met with medical officials at Rush University Medical Center and other leaders, including Gov. J.B. Pritzker, to discuss mitigation efforts in Illinois. She was primarily concerned with the rural areas in Illinois that have reported a spike in cases.

“Now is the time to win the battle and the war,” said state Rep. Justin Slaughter, D-Chicago. “We’ve said it before. Now is the time to pick up the bloodstained banner of our black communities and march forward.” A civil rights attorney joined the group and said policing is racist to its core.

According to Moody’s, Met Pier has about $2.9 billion worth of outstanding bonds backed by various tourism-related taxes in Chicago and, as a backstop, Illinois state sales tax revenues, which are used whenever the local revenues are insufficient to make the bond payments.

Gov. JB Pritzker has called it a “mistake” that he did not implement the stricter bar and restaurant restrictions earlier.

By actuary Mary Pat Campbell on a persistent myth about pensions. Note two of the repeat offenders — Ralph Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability and Greg Hinz of Crain’s.

“They contribute about $350 million to the [gross domestic product] to Grundy County, more than 11.5 percent,” said Nancy Norton, president of the Grundy County Economic Development Council. School districts located near one of Exelon’s six nuclear generation facilities spend more per student than nearby districts.

“People do not always realize that systemic racial injustices can apply to something as trivial as transportation, so it’s great to see Illinois and other Midwestern states making diversity a priority,” said State Sen. Cristina Castro, a Democrat from Elgin.

With mandatory social distancing, restaurants are only allowed to accommodate about 50 percent of customer capacity indoors; In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot has held firm at a 25 percent capacity ceiling for indoor dining until the number of new COVID-19 cases drop down farther. Extending outside table season is one more thing that Illinois restaurants are trying to keep their businesses going.

“Police officers and chiefs feel like they are under siege, being beat up for reasons that aren’t their fault. I’m also hearing morale is really down and that’s unfortunate,” said Ed Wojcicki, executive director of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.

Those who test positive are supposed to wait at least 10 days in isolation before getting tested again, Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Deputy Administrator Awais Vaid said. But some, “for whatever reason, are going multiple times and getting tested in the hope that they will test negative.”

“In a new analysis by Wirepoints, Illinois was called an “extreme outlier” in part because its credit rating had fallen to “one notch above junk, with a negative outlook.” Have the credit rating “agencies” been overly charitable, as in the (recent) past?”

A Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry spokesperson responded: “The Illinois residents you’ve heard from are likely victims of the widespread national Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program (PUA) fraud ring. The PUA program is being targeted by scammers that are using previously stolen identities to apply for these unemployment benefits in multiple states.”

According to the complaint, McDonald’s steered Black franchisees toward restaurants in low-income neighborhoods, which typically have higher security and insurance costs and lower volume sales.

“From listening to my clients, I know that if we make it easier to hike income taxes, for all income levels, our residents will simply move away and take their tax revenue with them. Nobody believes it’s only the rich who will be asked to pay more.”

Andy Shaw: “Downsizing is a complicated process and a heavy lift that requires a major commitment…But so far neither the Pritzker administration nor Democratic legislative leaders in Springfield have shown much interest in this efficiency concept, either because it’s too wonky or too threatening to their political cronies in those sinecures.”

Health officials have blamed the higher risk of contracting the virus in bordering states as the reason for a recent uptick in cases in Illinois.

States are facing a budget shortfall of $555 billion over the three years through June 2022. How each state addresses the challenge could affect taxpayers, employees and bond holders for years to come.